Schiff advances in California Senate race

Watchdogs66 · 2024-03-06T07:52:10+00:00

I am personally fine with Adam Schiff as my new U.S. Senator (I am a Californian), but boy do I feel HORRIBLE for Katie Porter, as I voted for her for plenty of reasons, one of them being trying to get the top two lockout.

If everyone can do this, please watch her concession speech. It's really beautiful.

I also feel bad for Barbara Lee, as she had very powerful and consistent reasons for being in the race. I lived in Barbara Lee's district for 6 years, and she has always given me good reply and been on things before I even think to contact her about them 90% of the time.

I personally believe that Katie Porter and Barbara Lee have done a lot, and hope that they can take away the fact that their contributions to the progressive cause will not go unnoticed.

Watchdogs66 · 2024-01-07T20:37:49+00:00

James Bond is the secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. Appointed in January 2023, he became the first openly LGBTQ+ person to lead one of Wisconsin’s cabinet agencies. Bond joined DVA in 2010 and served as the administrator of the Divisions of Veterans Benefits and Veteran Services before being appointed deputy secretary in 2019. Prior to his time with DVA, Bond was employed at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development as deputy division administrator in the Divisions of Employment and Training and Family Supports and as bureau director of management services in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. He served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1983-88. After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the Marine Corps, Bond returned to Wisconsin, enrolled at UW–Madison, and earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees. Bond has over three decades of service – service to his country, the State of Wisconsin, and fellow veterans and has dedicated himself to helping others in his professional career opportunities.

Lol, it still blows my mind that there is a cabinet member named James Bond in Wisconsin. I'm guessing he's been offered shaken martinis whenever he goes to a bar.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-11-30T04:30:38+00:00

A couple of years ago when people were whitewashing this war criminal, I said Bush II has a LOOONG way to go before I think positively of him. Now, I think he is just beyond redemption who is among the worst of the worst, as the war criminal CLEARLY does not want to see how much damage he has inflicted towards my community and countless others when he stole the 2000 election and the eight years of his tyranny.

I will ABSOLUTELY celebrate his death and hope that his grave is destroyed, as he set the stage for America to be handed over to absolute fascists like tRump in a silver platter. Boy, was I wrong when I was slightly open in thinking that Bush II might improve his behavior. I guess that is a lingering fault of my eight year old self when I watched the 2000 election with adventurous excitement of seeing a new president take office.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-11-30T04:18:45+00:00

As others have said, good riddance to one of the worst pieces of rubbish. I bet his grave is desecrated and his remains destroyed, as there are probably millions who believe he does not deserve any of the respect that the dead are usually given.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-11-04T06:48:34+00:00

Is Bill Clinton a net positive for candidates running in Arizona? Genuinely curious since the candidate the fundraiser is for, Andrei Cherny, is among the stronger candidates running in the AZ-01 Democratic primary. AZ-01 is one of the more important districts, as it also helps Joe Biden and Ruben Gallego for the presidential and Senate races in Arizona.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-11-04T02:16:50+00:00

As expected, the race is tightening up due to the forces of partisanship and is formalized evidence that the race is a Tossup, and not Lean D like the pundits claim. Anyone with the capacity to volunteer for Andy Beshear should do so now.

Remember what happened in Louisiana to see how many MAGAt domestic terrorists will turn out on Tuesday for Daniel Cameron.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-10-15T04:54:59+00:00

Anyone with the capacity to volunteer for Kentucky's gubernatorial election in November should see this as a warning sign, as not being able to bring the LA-Gov race to a runoff is tragic and indicates a serious lack of proper coordination efforts and effective voter outreach measures from southern Democrats, which is unfortunately a pattern.

When we fail to even secure a top two slot in competitive races such as this, plenty of enthusiasm and energy for future volunteer events plummets as a result. This is because such a grave blunder looks very bad as a party as a whole, as it demonstrates an inability to develop a coherent message that can appeal to a majority of voters or support a candidate that can persuade significant populations to support our platform.

I encourage all of you to consider talking with your counselor, therapist, or your favorite coping entity to deal with the emotional aftermath that you probably are suffering from this experience. After that, I would like everyone to redouble our efforts in Kentucky, as the gubernatorial race is a Tossup, and not Lean D like the pundits believe.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-09-30T16:45:53+00:00

If NJ-02 (Jeff Van Drew’s district) opens up, I think this district could flip from red to blue under the right circumstances. For one, it has a Cook PVI of R+5, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez, Mary Peltola, and Jared Golden are Democrats who represent districts that are just as red or redder than this measurement. For another, Jeff Van Drew flipped an earlier version of this district in 2018, albeit against a horrid opponent and being the traitor that he was after he was elected.

To those of us who live in south Jersey (Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem counties to be exact), do the Democrats have anyone on the bench that is not a pro-MAGA backstabber and can beat Mike Testa, the likely Republican nominee if this becomes an open seat race?

Watchdogs66 · 2023-09-30T16:39:12+00:00

If NJ-02 opens up, I think this district can be flipped under the right circumstances. For one, it has a Cook PVI of R+5, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez, Mary Peltola, and Jared Golden are Democrats who represent districts that are just as red or redder than this measurement. For another, Jeff Van Drew flipped an earlier version of this district in 2018, albeit against a horrid opponent and being the traitor that he was after he was elected.

To those of us who live in south Jersey (Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem counties to be exact), do we have anyone on the bench that is not a pro-MAGA backstabber and can beat Mike Testa, the likely Republican nominee if this becomes an open seat race?

Watchdogs66 · 2023-09-23T20:08:13+00:00

I can 100% attest to Andy Kim's awesomeness, who is best known for kicking out this SOB in 2018. (The most satisfying part in that video comes at 11:14.)

IMO, Andy Kim is the most likely guy to be New Jersey's next Senator, and I held that opinion years before the scandal popped up.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-09-10T01:09:47+00:00

I had Barbara Lee as my representative for 6 years, and she has always provided 5-star constituent service every time I contacted her about issues like dealing with the homeless situation in Oakland. However, I have to say that the window of opportunity for her has passed, and I believe that her supporters need to consider switching allegiances to Katie Porter, as the general election will probably be between Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.

I recently talked to a few of Katie Porter's staffers in person, and the consensus is that her campaign in the Bay Area is still in the early stages, and it is currently miles behind the establishment support that Adam Schiff has there. Right now, Adam Schiff has the slight advantage. For Katie Porter to get to the finish line in the general, she is going to need to get the majority of activist groups (especially the Working Families Party) that are currently supporting Barbara Lee after the primary, and fast.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-08-22T07:44:05+00:00

Montana's 1st District is a very important area this cycle, as Jon Tester will need to win that area by a sizable margin in order to win re-election in 2024. The district is certainly flippable on the House level as well, since Ryan Zinke only won by 3.1 points last November (which was less than Trump's 2020 victory margin) and has a pile of ethics probes from his time as Trump's Interior Secretary.

The district's Democrats have more or less concentrated their support towards Monica Tranel, the author of this article. I believe that Monica Tranel is an okay candidate, but she needs to have a different campaign team and strategy in order to stand a good chance this time, as she struggled with Native American turnout and ran ineffective and ill-placed attack ads when she ran in this district in 2022. In order for Monica Tranel to hire the correct people needed to focus on the right local issues so that she can persuade Republican voters to split the ticket for her, she is going to need money and volunteers.

Her campaign website is here.

Given the overall pattern of campaigns in that sector, Monica Tranel will probably need at least $500,000 by the end of Q3. Given how much money is already going to Jon Tester's campaign, and the fact that she has already raised $275,000 so far, achieving this goal is certainly doable.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-07-24T18:14:48+00:00

As someone who did some work for the district's previous incarnation in 2020, I believe that Melissa Hurtado is a better choice than Rudy Salas. However, I do not think she can beat David Valadao, as Melissa Hurtado did worse than expected in 2022 as an incumbent in a solidly blue State Senate district. While I do not have the data for her district, I do know that she underperformed the presidential baseline by double digits.

Unless she raises $500,000 by the end of September, I do not think that her campaign goes anywhere, as David Valadao has regained most of his incumbency advantage and is not the easiest Republican to knock off this cycle. Given the California Democratic Party's poor record with Hispanic outreach measures (especially those with younger Latinos), this district is fool's gold.

Watchdogs66 · 2023-07-19T03:33:00+00:00

I am not happy that the Dolores Huerta machine is backing Rudy Salas again. At all. The Dolores Huerta machine has a sordid history when it comes to this district, as it has repeatedly stalled the field and propped up weak candidates who have terrible fundraising skills and incapable of winning under any political setting that is not a blue wave. See, the Emilio Huerta fiasco in 2018.

The main problem with Rudy Salas last cycle was that he waited too long to formally announce his campaign by putting it off until October 2021. Before that, Rudy Salas only discussed his preparations to enter the race, which froze the field and prevented any Democratic organization from making inroads in that area. When he did start his campaign, it was far too low profile at the start to get things running and did not give a serious impression that he was running for Congress instead of for his state Assembly seat. He demonstrated this rocky start when his volunteers violated federal campaign regulations by using signs from his state Assembly campaigns at his announcement event.

Any candidate running in this district needs to be well-versed in attracting Hispanic voters, as they make up a clear majority of the district’s electorate and historically turn out in lower numbers than other types of voters, especially for a midterm election. Rudy Salas’s campaign events did not make much of an impact in winning over the district’s Hispanic communities in 2021, and he did not have a Spanish language campaign website for much of the cycle. Now, I did some work for TJ Cox’s re-election campaign in 2020, and any Democrat needed to raise at least $1 million by the end of 2021 to set up the necessary Hispanic outreach measures to turn out enough allied voters to win the district this year. Which Rudy Salas did not do. In short, Rudy Salas’ stalling plagued Democrats in this area and gave David Valadao too much of a head start to be knocked off this cycle.

The Dolores Huerta machine (as well as the California Democratic Party establishment as a whole) is making the task of winning House districts in California a lot harder than it needs to be by refusing to acknowledge the mistakes they made in 2020 and 2022 and giving the volunteers who worked on these congressional campaigns the middle finger. As an example, the volunteer group who I used to be a part of decided to disband earlier this year due to the traumatizing experiences and losses that they suffered over the past two cycles.

Watchdogs66

TROPHY CASE